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Video 5:26
Deployment fatigue

Michael CogganUpdated
Mon 5 Sep 2011, 12:40 PM AEST

Mike Coggan looks at whether an increasing number of soldiers are leaving the army after being deployed overseas.

Transcript

CLAIRE MACKEY, PRESENTER: This weekend 1,200 troops will march through the city of Darwin to mark the return of soldiers from operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and East Timor. Most of them have just completed a nine month deployment in southern Afghanistan, and it appears a growing number of them are deciding they've had enough of being sent overseas. Official figures show an increase in the number of soldiers leaving the Army but the Federal Government is happy with retention rates. Michael Coggan reports.

MICHAEL COGGAN, REPORTER: Soldiers from the Darwin based 1st Brigade are rehearsing a memorial service to bid an official farewell to comrades killed in Afghanistan. Combat engineer Lance Corporal David Myers lost his friends Corporal Richard Atkinson and Sapper Jamie Larcombe in separate attacks in February. Their names are being added to a permanent memorial at Robertson Barracks.

LCPL DAVID MYERS, COMBAT ENGINEER: For the regiment definitely it's to recognise that they've lost friends overseas it's, it is important to them. It's important to the guys that were close to the guys, those people that died overseas to be able to recognise it, and publically so.

MICHAEL COGGAN: Corporal Myers finds it difficult to talk about the impact the deaths have had on him personally but troop Sergeant Ben King has no doubt losing colleagues caused his men to question why they were in Afghanistan.

SGT BEN KING, COMBAT ENGINEER: It definitely raised questions with the blokes about what they were doing and whether it was worth it and all the rest of it, but at the end of the day the blokes continued on and they did it for each other.

MICHAEL COGGAN: But the threat of being killed isn't the only factor playing on the minds of the soldiers who spent up to nine months serving with Mentoring Task Force 2 in the Tarin Kot region - deployment fatigue also appears to be taking a toll. It's been a long seven or eight months for the soldiers deployed here from Darwin. Most of the soldiers I've spoken to say it's been the highlight of their career but about a third of them have already submitted their discharge papers or are considering leaving the Defence Force. Department of Defence figures show 42 personnel deployed as part of MTF2 have applied to be discharged, representing less than five percent of the task force. But official figures up to the end of the financial year show the rolling separation rate for the 30,000 permanent Australian Army employees has increased by one-point-four percent.

DAVID JAMISON, DEFENCE WELFARE ASSOCIATION: It's not surprising given the tempo of operations and number of deployments some of our people are being sent on these days I think we've got to understand that the ADF level of operational involvement is as high as we have seen it in living memory almost.

MICHAEL COGGAN: While serving in Afghanistan Lance Corporal Matthew Clarke told me he had submitted his discharge papers and some of his friends were doing the same. But the Minister for Defence Personnel says the official number of voluntary discharges from the Darwin based 1st Brigade isn't showing a significant increase.

WARREN SNOWDON, MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL: We're not seeing huge numbers of people separate following deployments, there were only 255 separations from one brigade during 2010-11. That's approximately six-point-five percent. The rolling separation rate for the permanent ADF was seven-point-nine percent so we've got lower separation in the deployed force than we have overall.

MICHAEL COGGAN: But Australia's peak defence welfare organisation says deployment fatigue is a growing problem not yet reflected in the official figures.

DAVID JAMISON, DEFENCE WELFARE ASSOCIATION: We can expect that the stresses brought about by the multiple deployments and the multiple separations from families on exercises and courses, in between those deployments, is going to have a compounding effect and I would expect the separation rate will increase.

MICHAEL COGGAN: Regardless of the pressures of high-tempo deployment the Darwin based soldiers are upbeat and proud of the work they've done to improve the lives of people in Afghanistan.

SGT BEN KING, COMBAT ENGINEER: We saw a huge difference from where we started to where we finished. I mean we built another two patrol bases within the Mirabad Valley.

MICHAEL COGGAN: But for now the most important thing for these soldiers is taking the time to stop and remember their friends who didn't make it home.

SGT BEN KING, COMBAT ENGINEER: For the blokes who are over there doing the job with Akka and Larcs it's a huge thing. I mean you know to think that those guys over there so young, doing the job that they were doing, it's something that we need to, you know we don't ever really want to forget.